Scott McGuire Administrator

I have read the FAQ and the subjects but can't find an answer. Whenever I send QT .mov files to the server, Fetch converts them to Stuffit X archives.

I managed to upload one movie file before this started happening but I can't get the others to upload as regular .mov files.

Then, I see the Stuffit files on the server but as soon as I use 'Refresh' the file disappears from the Server altogether.

Hi macwoman,

It sounds like you have two different problems - the movies being uploaded as StuffIt files, and the files disappearing after you choose "Refresh."

Let's work on the StuffIt problem first.

Normally Fetch should not be compressing QuickTime movies as StuffIt files when uploading. We would like to investigate why your movies are getting compressed, but we understand that you want to get your movies up and working first, so please try this workaround:

* Connect to your server with Fetch, as usual.
* Then, go to the Remote menu, go to the Format submenu, and choose "Binary (Raw Data)".
* Upload one of the problem QuickTime movies.

Does the movie upload correctly? Can you still see it after you choose Refresh?

Scott McGuire Administrator

I assume this is a function of Fetch's automatic feature to convert certain formats to a compressed version to ensure a correct upload.

That is correct - a text clipping file consists only of special Macintosh resources, and the only way to properly preserve them when putting them on a server is to store them in a format that preserves Macintosh resources, such as StuffIt, Mac OS X Zip, BinHex, or MacBinary. When using the Automatic upload format, the current version of Fetch chooses StuffIt X format to preserve Macintosh resources.

QuickTime movies, however, normally do not need to have resource forks preserved, so normally macwoman's QuickTime movies should not be being Stuffed on upload when using Automatic format.

However, it is extremely disappointing that Fetch defaults to using sitx.

Given that zip is built into OS X, it seems strange that there is not at least an option to change the default conversion format to zip.

In fact, I am going to request that either as part of the normal preferences approach or a hidden preference, Fetch allow the *user* to decide which compression format is the default.

Thanks for the feedback. There were techincal issues with some older Mac OS X versions that caused us to not choose Zip as the format for preserving resources originally; however, those have been resolved and we are considering changing the default from StuffIt to Zip in a future version of Fetch.

You can force Fetch to upload files in Zip format by choosing "Zip Archive" from the Format submenu, but that does force all files you upload to be combined into a single Zip archive, which we realize is probably not what you want.

macwoman Member

I did what you suggested and saw the file go up as binary data. There it was, sitting on the server as a .mov file.

As soon as I clicked on Refresh, the file disappeared.

How come I was able to send one QT movie up there, but not the other 2?

BTW, I started Fetch 4 again to see if it would work, but it has the same problem, ie: Refresh=disappear.

I found a workaround with this. My movie files were in the format of QuickTime with Sound as Sound Integet 'Little Endian' and Video format as Motion JPEG A.

I took the movies into iMovie and re-exported them. The formats now are: Sound: AAC and Video: H.264

These 2 movies now appear on the server and are fine.

macwoman

----------reply sep---------------

Originally posted by ScottMcGuire:

Hi macwoman,

It sounds like you have two different problems - the movies being uploaded as StuffIt files, and the files disappearing after you choose "Refresh."

Let's work on the StuffIt problem first.

Normally Fetch should not be compressing QuickTime movies as StuffIt files when uploading. We would like to investigate why your movies are getting compressed, but we understand that you want to get your movies up and working first, so please try this workaround:

* Connect to your server with Fetch, as usual.
* Then, go to the Remote menu, go to the Format submenu, and choose "Binary (Raw Data)".
* Upload one of the problem QuickTime movies.

Does the movie upload correctly? Can you still see it after you choose Refresh?

Scott McGuire Administrator

Hi macwoman,

Without seeing the files themselves, it's hard for me to say why one uploaded correctly the first and you're having problem with the others. Possibly the first movie is in a slightly different format, or was created with a different tool?

But putting that aside for the moment, let me double-check that I understand what you're seeing now properly:

When you upload a movie in with the Sound as Sound Integet 'Little Endian' and Video format as Motion JPEG A, it gets uploaded as a StuffIt file unless you choose Binary format first, and the file disappears from the Fetch window when you choose Refresh - regardless of whether it was uploaded as a StuffIt file or not.

But if you export the movie as Sound: AAC and Video: H.264, and then upload, it does not get Stuffed, and it does not disappear when you click Refresh. Is that correct?

(I'll ask for some additional information once I'm sure I've understood this correctly.)

macwoman Member

All correct - i.e. everything sent up with Sound Integet 'Little Endian' and Video format as Motion JPEG A disappears - regardless of how it is sent up to the server.

I have tried it both ways - with or without the binary data upload method - and the files in the above mentioned movie format always disappear from the server upon refresh.

>But if you export the movie as Sound: AAC and Video: H.264, and then upload, it does not get Stuffed, and it does not disappear when you click Refresh. Is that correct?

Spot on. As long as I send the files up as binary data in the above format they do not get stuffed and they don't disappear - the files are on the server and they work fine - they're online now, linked to my web page.

The problem files were created in Quicktime. The files that will stay on the server were exported with iMovie/CD format/no expert settings.

I would not want to have stuffed movie files on the server as I cannot link to them from a web page as movies.

PS: I originally thought that this might be a Fetch version 4 to 5 new version problem - then 2 days ago I reverted to using Fetch 4 - and I found the same problem. The problem only went away when I exported the movies with iMovie.

How come nobody has mentioned this problem with using Fetch version 4?

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, Fetch is the best!

macwoman

Originally posted by ScottMcGuire:

Hi macwoman,

Without seeing the files themselves, it's hard for me to say why one uploaded correctly the first and you're having problem with the others. Possibly the first movie is in a slightly different format, or was created with a different tool?

But putting that aside for the moment, let me double-check that I understand what you're seeing now properly:

When you upload a movie in with the Sound as Sound Integet 'Little Endian' and Video format as Motion JPEG A, it gets uploaded as a StuffIt file unless you choose Binary format first, and the file disappears from the Fetch window when you choose Refresh - regardless of whether it was uploaded as a StuffIt file or not.

But if you export the movie as Sound: AAC and Video: H.264, and then upload, it does not get Stuffed, and it does not disappear when you click Refresh. Is that correct?

(I'll ask for some additional information once I'm sure I've understood this correctly.)

Scott McGuire Administrator

Hi,

The likely reason no one has mentioned this problem with Fetch 4 is that disappearing files when you refresh is not normal behavior for either Fetch 4 or Fetch 5.

Fetch 4 did not have support for automatically Stuffing files, so the Stuffing problem would not have happened with it (but the problem movie files would probably be encoded as something else equally unhelpful for your situation).

Do both the Quicktime-created movies and the iMovie-created movies have names that end in ".mov"? Or do they have different extensions at the end?

We'd like to look at one of the movies that's getting Stuffed when you upload it. How big is the smallest one of them?

macwoman Member

>The likely reason no one has mentioned this problem with Fetch 4 is that disappearing files when you refresh is not normal behavior for either Fetch 4 or Fetch 5.

Absolutely correct. I never noticed any problem under v4, util a few days ago. I've sent dozens of movies up under 4 with no problems before, until a few days ago.

>Do both the Quicktime-created movies and the iMovie-created movies have names that end in ".mov"?

Yes. They both have the same .mov file extension.

>We'd like to look at one of the movies that's getting Stuffed when you upload it.

OK ;-)

>How big is the smallest one of them?

Just under 8Mb. I have made a little stuffit folder with the 'good' movie and the 'BAD' movie inside. The size is 8Mb. Let me know where to send it to, Scott.

macwoman

Originally posted by ScottMcGuire:

Hi,

The likely reason no one has mentioned this problem with Fetch 4 is that disappearing files when you refresh is not normal behavior for either Fetch 4 or Fetch 5.

Fetch 4 did not have support for automatically Stuffing files, so the Stuffing problem would not have happened with it (but the problem movie files would probably be encoded as something else equally unhelpful for your situation).

Do both the Quicktime-created movies and the iMovie-created movies have names that end in ".mov"? Or do they have different extensions at the end?

We'd like to look at one of the movies that's getting Stuffed when you upload it. How big is the smallest one of them?

macwoman Member

The first movie I sent up, the 'good' movie was in the format that made the other 2 eventually work:

Sound: AAC and Video: H.264

So that's why it stayed on the server, whereas the other 2 movies disappeared under the format of Sound as Sound Integet 'Little Endian' and Video format as Motion JPEG A.

Now all we have to find out is 'why' they disappear.

macwoman

Originally posted by ScottMcGuire:

Hi macwoman,

Without seeing the files themselves, it's hard for me to say why one uploaded correctly the first and you're having problem with the others. Possibly the first movie is in a slightly different format, or was created with a different tool?

But putting that aside for the moment, let me double-check that I understand what you're seeing now properly:

When you upload a movie in with the Sound as Sound Integet 'Little Endian' and Video format as Motion JPEG A, it gets uploaded as a StuffIt file unless you choose Binary format first, and the file disappears from the Fetch window when you choose Refresh - regardless of whether it was uploaded as a StuffIt file or not.

But if you export the movie as Sound: AAC and Video: H.264, and then upload, it does not get Stuffed, and it does not disappear when you click Refresh. Is that correct?

(I'll ask for some additional information once I'm sure I've understood this correctly.)

Veronica Member

Hi!
Today I opened a file with photos using Stuffit. After the file opened and all photos were downloaded, all the documents on my desktop dissapeared. I can´t find any of my files, including any of my recent keynote presentations. I am not at all familiar with this program, I browsed to see if I could find some of the folders, I did, but the documents are all messed up, and seem to be blank, even the word documents, and they keynote presentations seem to have disappeared. Can you please help me?